Some 25% of soldiers who have served in danger zones develop a degree of PTSD. Moreover, according to the Canadian Forces, an estimated 3,900 Afghanistan veterans will come home with an occupational stress injury (OSI).

Most troubling, the symptoms of these disorders often manifest years after their combat experiences.

Queen’s University professor Kip Pegley, of the School of Music, is looking to music as a way to alleviate some of the more egregious symptoms of PTSD.

Raised in a military family — her father a veteran of the Korean War — Pegley turned to music at age eight when she found playing the trumpet a powerful outlet of expression.

In 1993, while buying tickets for a Broadway show at the base of the World Trade Centre, a bomb was detonated in the North Tower. The indelible images of such terrorism left Pegley with symptoms of PTSD and she again turned to music as a sort of relief.

The events of 9/11 sparked memories of the 1993 bombing and gave Pegley the impetus to delve deeper into the link between music and violence.

Pegley found, through her research, that music was not a kind and benevolent “white noise” — rather it was being used as an instrument to “tell us how to grieve, and how to emote,” she says.

Pegley has since sought to harness the power of music. In doing so, she has interviewed a number of retired servicemen and women — many of them soldiers from peacekeeping missions in the 1970s and ’80s — in an attempt to pin down exactly what impact music has had on their healing process.

“Some of these guys are coming back, sleeping in closets, with only the radio going … music has become their lifeline and the only place they feel safe,” Pegley says.

Moreover, many of these soldiers need to “have sound around them at all times and it goes back to when they were deployed,” Pegley says. “If there was silence, it meant there was trouble.”

Pegley remembers interviewing a veteran from the conflict in Somalia.

“He was one of these guys who listened to The Doors and Deep Purple and when he came back … his favourite artist was Enya,” Pegley says.

For this soldier, the heavy metal music of his youth became associated with the trauma of war.

“He could only listen to new music and everything had to be modulated at a really low level,” Pegley says.

“Enya’s music was soft and gentle, and there was nothing shocking about it,” Pegley says.

The ethereal music of this Irish songstress was a comforting presence — a way to drown out the sounds of war playing in his head.

Pegley began to wonder if music could be used for something more than just a latent source of comfort.

“Could music be used to help soldiers heal their emotional lives?” she wondered.

With the Department of National Defence now admitting they’ve not hired enough psychiatrists and mental-health professionals to deal with PTSD cases, some are pointing to music as the new frontier, an alternative to traditional counselling.

“We ask soldiers to do things that are kind of unthinkable … we’re asking them to do things that are really hideous,” Pegley says. “And then we ask them to come back and reintegrate. How can we help them become fully human again?

“We need to think of music as a tool to help soldiers.”

Music is a prized form of relaxation with roots that date back to prehistoric times. During the First and Second World Wars, British therapists discovered that soldiers suffering from high levels of stress and anxiety were helped by listening to and playing music.

Pegley believes that the Canadian Forces have not devoted enough attention to the therapeutic possibilities of music.

Pegley advocates using music as a “portal for other parts of soldiers’ lives,” a way to help “soldiers open up emotionally.”

Research suggests that alternative therapies, such as the use of music, can help veterans to talk about the disturbing memories they have by mitigating the amount of anxiety related to such thoughts.

And in Pegley’s experience, music can also serve as a springboard for further discussion, a “pathway” for expressing emotion.

“It can be hard for some of these soldiers to open up, to sit with me and talk about vulnerability. (War) is a hard place to revisit,” Pegley says.

And yet music therapy itself has a whole different energy than just talking about trauma.

“I had this one big guy,” Pegley says, remembering a conversation with a veteran. “I told him ‘I’m here to talk to about music and PTSD.’ He said to me ‘I don’t get PTSD, I give it,’ so I knew this conversation would be interesting.”

But when Pegley started talking about music, “he began to soften … he lit up.”

“He began talking about the music they would play after someone died or after a really brutal combat (operation). By talking about music, it became this beautiful way to get to other layers of emotion that these guy’s just don’t want to talk about,” Pegley says. “Music allows them to feel safe enough to show that vulnerability and I think that’s amazing.”

Pegley will begin researching the function of music in the lives of active duty soldiers next year. She’ll also look at the ways music can prevent the onset of PTSD.

“What if we started music therapy while they’re over there?” Pegley asks. “I want to start off with music in basic training. I have people telling me they take away soldiers’ music during basic training — during such a stressful time for them — my question is, why are they taking away their music?

“Could it not be used as a way to help them prepare? (Military officials) think about basic training as taking away part of a soldiers’ identity, rebuilding them — and I understand that — but how could that music be used to help support them emotionally? With some 25% of people coming back with PTSD and others with drinking problems — having such a hard time — more needs to be done.”

Pegley says she wants to develop some concrete solutions for the Armed Forces — solutions that will “use (soldiers’) own music to help them deal” with the experiences of war.

And while music might not be the only solution for PTSD, it’s clear that relying exclusively on traditional treatment has left too many soldiers battered and broken. “We need to protect these soldiers,” and music might be the answer, Pegley says.